Yemisi Izuora
Lagos based legal practitioner, and Son of late elder statesman, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite leader of the Nigeria Advance Party (NAP) Barrister Olumide Braithwaite was amongst the personalities that decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State at the weekend.
The decamping ceremony which took place at Agege Stadium was witnessed by thousands of PDP members in the state who decamped alongside the former PDP chairman of Lagos state Moshood salvador. Olumide Braithwaite who was a leader in the PDP until recently stood for primaries for the Lagos Central Senatorial District in 2015 . He was also a member of the 40-man Caretaker Committee of the PDP Lagos State. He attributed the leadership problems that have plagued the PDP in recent times in Lagos as one of the motivating factors that informed his decision to decamp alongside Salvador.
Describing the issue of the various personalities that have recently decamped from one party to another, Braithwaite said that he had consulted members of his constituency and that whilst he was not one to take such decisions lightly as a matter of principle, he felt confident that the APC would be the right party to assuage the grievances of the electorate come 2019 General Elections.
He commended the anti-corruption campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari as a continuing work in progress which requires the support of all Nigerians both home and abroad. Braithwaite was quoted as saying “in fact many of our supporters believed that this decamping ought to have come some years earlier, describing it as coming back home, bearing in mind that I have always been a progressive, a trait I took from my late father, Dr Tunji Braithwaite who is known for his principles and integrity as well as being revolutionary, a legacy I feel honoured to emulate”.